How Should an HR Manager Handle a Boss Who Undermines Her Authority and Trust?

Hi everyone!

I have a few skepticisms to be cleared out. One of my friends is facing this problem:

PHASE 1

The boss of the company for which she is working was trying to create a rift between her and her immediate superior (HR Manager) by sneaking around and creating misunderstandings. The situation worsened so much that the executive felt the need to resign from the company and the manager (AS INSTRUCTED BY THE HEAD) accepted the resignation and didn't even allow the executive to serve the notice period. However, SURPRISINGLY, the boss called her up the next day and refused to accept the resignation of the executive and told her to join back considering her good performance. He, on the other hand, took a one-to-one session with the manager and yelled at her and refuted her for the same.

The distraught manager told the executive everything after a couple of days. All the misunderstandings were cleared between them.

Now that the manager and the executive used to share a good rapport, the head was pretty uncomfortable due to unknown reasons.

PHASE 2

Although the HR department in the company is streamlined, the Manager needs to take permission from the boss for EVERY small thing. Even the decisions regarding sanctioning of leaves, salary uploading, distribution of incentives, which are SOLELY HR functions, are decided by the boss. There is NO DECENTRALIZATION. The boss interferes in the recruitment and selection pattern, tests, EVERY DAMN thing.

In this situation, the HR manager feels absolutely redundant and useless because she has NO AUTHORITY.

My question to everyone is:

Now that the HR Manager knows that the Boss, whom she used to trust, has shown his true colors by sneaking around about her in front of the HR executive, what should she do? She feels absolutely invaluable in the organization as she has no AUTHORITY even after holding the position of an HR Manager with a staff strength of over 150+.

Should the HR manager leave the company? What should she do...

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Hi Shewta,

I would like to know a few things before giving any comments. Which industry is your friend working in? How long has she been working with the same organization? Is decision-making centralized for all departments or only for the HR department?

Regards, Harshad

She is in the ITES industry and has been working for the last 1.8 years. Yes, decision-making authority is centralized for all departments. However, the major part of the company comprises the HR department, as the HR manager is the second in command in the organization, but only in name.

Hi Shweta,

Such situations are common in every office, but it does not mean that one should adopt escapism as the way out. According to me, your friend should stick to the job and gradually try to change the boss. Try to understand the underlying cause of this - is he insecure or is there a deeper reason behind his behavior.

Thank you.

Hi,

A few things your friend should do before making a decision to quit:

1. She should talk to the head on a one-to-one basis about how she feels regarding the authority and responsibility given to her.
2. Find out the reason why the boss does not have faith in the staff.
3. Give herself and her boss a chance to change.

She will have to handle the situation very tactfully as it is a tricky situation. Quitting at the current time when the market is not favorable may not be a wise decision. Encourage her to hang on, try to change the situation.

Regards,
Harshad

Thank you for the suggestion, Harshad. The first option has already been tried but in vain. The reason he doesn't believe in his staff is because he is a snob. According to him, all the employees work only for money and that they hold the least importance in terms of self-respect and dignity. Do you think it's that easy to change such a boss?

Hi,

As an HR professional, we have to be positive and try our best. When employees start leaving the organization, they will understand their mistakes. They may have had previous bad experiences with decentralization, so now they want to be in control of everything.

As the company grows, it will have to decentralize things since it will be beyond anyone's control to handle everything alone in the organization. Therefore, it is advisable to wait for some time. If the salary component is good, considering the current market situation, it should be taken into account. Self-respect and dignity are important aspects, but the practical aspect should also be considered when deciding to quit a job where there is financial satisfaction but no job satisfaction. It is purely an individual decision since only that person knows the ground realities he/she is facing.

Regards,
Harshad

As per my understanding, this guy needs complete authority for all these things. And as per what you said, the company has 150 employees, so in that sense, normally bosses do check the ground-level work as they are easily accessible due to the small company size. Normally, bosses like these want to have full control over the process, system, and people. And of course, rule number 8 and rule number 9:

Rule 8: Bosses are always right.
Rule 9: Even if they are wrong, please refer to rule number 8.

Hence, we can't change them.

Regards,
9860336151

Hi Shweta,

I understand your friend's problem very well as I am going through the same situation. Instead, I asked for a communication meeting and highlighted all the issues which were not delegated to me completely. In order to have the task or project completed, I asked for full responsibility or to take back the responsibility. Finally, I received feedback from him that he is happy with my work and does not want to take back the responsibility. So, your friend will have to act according to the situation and show his leadership skills. At times, it requires stepping back.

Regards,
Saleem

Hi Swetha,

In my opinion, she should try to see things from her boss's perspective; that's what makes the difference. By doing so, she will understand the reasons behind certain decisions, making troubleshooting much easier.

Hi Shweta,

There are a few things one could do in such situations:
1. Make the boss feel that he is the boss.
2. Involve him in all the decisions/initiatives.
3. Thank him for his contributions.
4. Give him credit for your success.

Tact is the key here. Talent, while essential for one to do well in the career, is not enough on its own. Tact (political savviness) is equally important for one to succeed in one's career.

I suggest that your friend continue here for some more time. Difficult bosses, like the one in this case, will help us build behavioral qualities that will aid us in our career growth.

Thanks,
Anand

Hi Shweta,

I would like to agree with Mr. S. Shamantha Raj on this.

Business is an economic activity to meet customer needs profitably. HR is a cost center and will continue to be in times to come for most of the organizations today.

If I am a profit center head (I assume this is what that boss in question is), ideally my focus should be on the topline and bottom line of the business. Some managers feel that in order to get the best out of the workforce, there has to be a sense of competition. So what they do is they try to make their team members compete with each other, sometimes at their own cost.

The constant challenge with the boss is to get the results from the team. This becomes crucial when you have indirect reportees (reportees of your direct reportees). Their CTC is added to your own cost to the company.

If your direct reportees and indirect reportees team up, you risk low productivity of your team and hence your job.

The easiest way of overcoming this is not to allow this team-up to happen and put people in tight spots for business sake; nothing personal.

This has a direct conflict with individual interests sometimes, and as an executive, I may feel the L2 manager is a bad manager. And since I am frequently in a tight spot, the easiest way out is to exit. The company also does not bother much as you are a low-cost resource, that too in a cost center.

The above argument is based on an assumption that your friend, her boss, and L2 manager are doing their jobs honestly and putting sincere efforts into achieving organizational goals.

If you spot someone who is not putting sincere efforts but rather creating obstacles for those who try doing it, you should ideally try to put that person in a tight spot. Remember, no one in any organization is bigger than organizational goals. If you are doing your job sincerely, no one can point a finger at you. Just keep track of what you do and how it impacts the organization.

I will not advise your friend to change jobs for this reason.

Cheers,
Saurabh

Hi,

From the shared information, it's very clear that the boss has ego problems. This will destroy the whole working environment and the business at large. The job of a responsible HR is to sit down with the boss during a calm moment and address his attitude, helping him or her realize that the company is his creation. The HR's role in this situation will be tough, but if you emerge successful, you will be the best at convincing people.

Sincerely,
S.S. Raj

I would like to post my opinion.

HR Manager should speak to the boss and explain about the advantages of decentralization. The HR Manager should make the boss understand that decentralization of work will allow the boss to concentrate on the larger vision of the company, and at the same time, the HR Manager will also have authority, respect, and command over others (i.e., improving job satisfaction). It is a win-win situation.

Also, the HR Manager should check with the boss by asking questions to focus attention on the HR Manager.

If the boss is at odds with the HR Manager, then it is advisable to either leave the job by lodging a complaint with top management or adjust to the situation.

This is my view and opinion. I would like to have comments from others, please.

Thanks and regards,

B. VIJAYAKRISHNAN

Could you suggest ways to improve my work performance?



Hi everyone! I have a few skepticisms to be cleared out. One of my friends is facing this problem:

PHASE 1

The boss of the company for which she is working was trying to create a rift between her and her immediate superior (HR Manager) by sneaking around and creating misunderstandings. The situation worsened so much that the executive felt the need to resign from the company, and the manager (AS INSTRUCTED BY THE HEAD) accepted the resignation without allowing the executive to serve the notice period. However, SURPRISINGLY, the boss called her up the next day and refused to accept the resignation of the executive and told her to rejoin considering her good performance. He, on the other hand, had a one-on-one session with the manager, yelled at her, and refuted her for the same.

The distraught manager told the executive everything after a couple of days, and all the misunderstandings were cleared between them. Now that the manager and the executive used to share a good rapport, the head was pretty uncomfortable due to unknown reasons.

PHASE 2

Although the HR department in the company is streamlined, the Manager needs to seek permission from the boss for EVERY small thing. Even decisions regarding sanctioning of leaves, salary uploading, distribution of incentives, which are SOLELY HR functions, are decided by the boss. There is NO DECENTRALIZATION. The boss interferes in the recruitment and selection pattern, tests, EVERYTHING.

In this situation, the HR manager feels absolutely redundant and useless because she has NO AUTHORITY. My question to everyone is: Now that the HR Manager knows that the Boss, whom she used to trust, has shown his true colors by sneaking around about her in front of HR executive, what should she do? She feels absolutely undervalued in the organization as she has no AUTHORITY despite holding the position of an HR Manager with a staff strength of over 150+. Should the HR manager leave the company? What should she do?

Corrected by Grammar and Spelling Correction Agent.

Hi Sourabh, thanks for the valuable advice. However, you have suggested something that, as a reverberation, is the core problem. The boss points fingers even when the results and goals are met. What should someone do in that situation?

Dear Shweta,

You have used similar language at two places "has shown his true colors by sneaking around about her in front of HR executive." What do you mean by it precisely? Does it mean he tried some favor being female from her??? And trying to harass her by using these tactics from phase 1 to phase 2 now, earlier SHE WAS ENJOYING AUTONOMY, AND LATER WHEN SHE REFUSED HIS ADVANCEMENTS he took the authority back??

Is it the case??? Tell me to give a solution to handle him?

Sun

Hi Shweta,

I read your story. I think you should hire a proper assistant - preferably a snob (the better looking, the better) - for your boss. I have a hunch that whatever results from that decision will help your boss see the world in a better light after the clash. What I mean is, as another member pointed out, there seems to be a personality mismatch. As an HR manager, you have the responsibility to assist your boss. Show him the mirror, but be prepared to provide emergency backup. Benevolence always helps in reverse.

Hi,

I think it is too late to reply to this thread; however, I still want to share my thoughts on the same topic. You need to carefully consider the situation as it could be an opportunity for you to learn a lot by working with a difficult boss. Remember, facing challenges indicates that you are on the right path. Listen to your heart and act accordingly.

Regards,
Kiran

Hi Shweta,

Thank you for the valuable advice. However, you have suggested something which, as a reverberation, is the core problem. The boss points fingers even when the results and goals are met. What should someone do in that situation?

Please provide the following information:

1. Core business of your organization
2. Organizational hierarchy - i.e., how far is the top boss from this role
3. Tenure of boss with the company
4. His total experience and background
5. Total experience of your friend and her educational background.

Putting one more hypothesis across...

Assuming the boss is a good employee as he has been recruited through the same hiring process as your friend and she is a 'good' employee.

These are recession times, and I can safely assume this organization is also going through similar times. Pressure on the bottom line results in pressure on top managers to cut down expenses and retrench staff to save on the salary bill.

So, pressure the team, and after a few months, you will automatically get a lean team and hence a lower salary bill.

Different people have different ways to put pressure...

Second hypothesis... The boss is threatened and insecure about his own job, desperately looking for a scapegoat who will allow him to save his job for some more time.

Cheers,
Saurabh

Hi Sourabh,

The total staff strength of the Indian branch is 155. The company is in the ITES industry, and its core business is "Medical Transcription."

The boss has been working with this company for the past 8 years. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA.

My friend's HR Manager has been working with this company for 1.8 years and she holds a total work experience of 5 and a half years.

I also want to mention that the boss's job is not vulnerable at all. He is heading the Indian branch, so there is no way he could be kicked out of the organization.

Dear Sweta,

She should wait and watch; sometimes situations will go against the person. Being an HR Manager, she should try to understand the problem and face the situation that occurred. After some time, I am sure her boss will automatically adjust.

Regards,

Ajay Sharma
Dy Manager (HR & Admn)
+919929598838

First of all, I wish your friend 'good luck' with the facts you shared.

Below are the facts I observed from the thread (correct me if I am mistaken on any!)

An ITES company in Medical transcription whose 'Indian' branch has more than 150 employees (I assume there are more branches overseas). Your friend is working as an HR Manager with at least one HR executive reporting to her. She has 5+ years of experience and nearly 2 years of working with the current organization. The immediate manager is a 'Male' having no professional degree in HR and is a 'veteran employee' of the organization. Your friend reports to the Head of India business (profit center head).

So, we are talking about three people... the Profit center head (or Boss), your friend, and the HR executive (or reportee).

The boss is acting in a way that is resulting in a rift between your friend and her reportee, or she has lost face in front of her team because of some action of her boss (refer to the incident of resignation by the reportee).

Your friend is friendly with the reportee and at a bay's distance from the boss.

I feel your friend is lacking conviction here. When she took the resignation from her reportee, the boss should not have overruled her. She should have refuted the boss and taken one-on-one then and there.

The very fact that the boss proved her 'wrong' in a one-on-one session and cornered her reveals that a) Either she took the resignation of her reportee with mis-intentions b) or She was not able to defend her decision to sack the executive in question or she has not taken the superiors in confidence before taking this step.

If Heads have asked her to do so, then she would not have landed in this situation. Ideally, she should have sent an email to the reportee asking for resignation with a CC to the boss, just to keep him also in the loop. It seems the boss simply refused to accept that he instructed her to do.

A 150 employee profit center will behave in a similar way as an SME will behave where everything is centralized at the top (usually a one-man show). The responsibility is decentralized while decision-making is not.

Your friend has limited or no access to the top and for all practical purposes, the 'boss' is the final word.

Now, she is tense as she feels she is not needed in the organization anymore.

She used to trust him, and now he is a snob :)

This happens at almost every workplace. Your boss is an ideal one until the day he shouts at you and puts you in a tight situation. Yes, the boss in question is not a good people manager. He should not have acted the way he did in the incident you shared. But he is a good profit center head as he has been with the organization for the past 8 years.

Remember, this is not a unique situation. 80 out of 100 professionals have tough bosses, and they leave a job anticipating a better boss and end up with a tougher one. This is a never-ending story.

In my opinion, the solution lies in understanding that the boss is also a human being who is struggling to perform in this performance-based 'corporate' world... after all, you and your friend will also like to grow up the corporate ladder.

One thing is clear: if she feels down and invaluable for the organization, it is time to change for her own good. No need to dig for reasons.

If she acknowledges that the boss had good business intentions and there will be personal growth if she continues... and she is not sitting idle... she should not change... as she will end up at a similar profile and similar package (courtesy of the recession), thereby hindering her career growth plans.

As they say... "Life is all about choosing between options. These options will make your destiny, and your destiny enforces the choice of options." Cheers, Saurabh

Dear Swetha,

As far as my view is concerned, the person should quit the job and label himself as a kind of escapism factor hidden inside him. It is important to make the boss understand that trustworthiness with employees is crucial. Furthermore, for your information, office politics are common and will follow you wherever you work under someone.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:
1. Look before you leap.
2. Work more, talk less.

When you follow these guidelines, be very careful when speaking with others. Pay attention to conversations and analyze them before drawing conclusions.

A. ROBERT MARIA VINCENT, M.D.
Roby Institute of Soft Skill Education
09894853480

Thanks, Robert. I will convey the information to my friend. I thank all those who have helped my friend cope with the situation by presenting their points of view.